Wired names new editor for website

Wired magazine has replaced its longtime website editor-in-chief,  Evan Hansen, with a Wired magazine veteran, Mark McClusky, reports Dylan Tweney of VentureBeat.com.

Tweney writes, “Both Hansen and McClusky are my friends, so I’m going out on a limb a bit in  reporting on the story. I worked at Wired.com from 2007 to 2011, where Hansen  was my boss, and I worked alongside McClusky years ago at a startup magazine  called Mobile (formerly Mobile PC).

“The move signals that this is the latest step in Wired owner Condé Nast’s  consolidation of the brand. Wired long suffered from its split into two  entities, print and digital. When Conde Nast acquired the magazine from its  founders, Louis and Jane Rossetto, in the late 1990s, it left the website on the  table. Wired.com eventually went to Lycos and then, after a change of ownership  or two, wound up being sold to Condé Nast in 2006 for a rumored $10 million to  $20 million. However, Wired.com remained in a separate division of Conde Nast  for years. The parent company remained focused on print magazines until quite  recently, and it seemed content to let its websites languish with minimal  budgets and minimal oversight.

“In recent years, Condé Nast has gradually brought the two sides of the  business together, at Wired and at other magazines it publishes.

“Wired.com  brought in almost as much revenue as Wired magazine in Q4  2012, so Condé Nast execs probably figured it was too important to leave  under separate leadership any longer.”

Read more here.